Wednesday, April 23, 2008

"Et le but!"

I'm French and I'm Canadian so I kinda have no choice but to be a Montreal Canadiens fan. It's in my blood. But being straight up CRAZY is not exactly my style.

The Habs won the first round of the NHL playoffs. They were victorious. And so what do they do? They freakin' riot. I'm talking Seattle 1999 crazyness. And not against Boston or even in Boston. No no. In Montreal. Burning cop cars, chuckin' bricks, lootin', the whole bit. It was a shit show.

And did I mention that they won? If the Habs end up losing in round two, they'll have to reinstate the War Measures Act.

C'mon hockey fans: Think of our reputation. Canadians are supposed to be nice and hockey loving, not drunk and dangerous jackasses.

In all seriousness, I echo the sentiments of a Montreal businessman that this is pretty embarassing. Get your shit together, kids. You're messing with my heritage.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

...and I haven't even seen a flying pig today!

Holy #$%! This badass feminist actually has some good news!
Canada might continue to maintain a dismal record of gender equity in government (at every level possible) but that isn't the case in Spain.

Spain's new cabinet consists of 9 womyn out of a total cabinet of 17. Do the math ladies and gents. That's more chicks than dudes!

Now usually when ladyfolk manage to even get into the Old Boys Club, they get files like Culture, Languages, Education, etcetera. They don't get nice heavy and politically important files like Defense, Trade, International relations and all that jazz. Well once again, the Spanish do it better!

They have more womyn than men, therefore surpassing gender parity plus they have a 7 month pregnant womyn serving as Defense Minister.

Oh and just when you thought feminists couldn't rejoice any harder? Their Prime Minister, who is a dude, calls himself a feminist.

*faints*

I'm moving to Spain.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Say it ain't so!

As far as I know, Canada is located North of the US of A and firmly at the top of North America. That’s what I thought. But reading the news lately, I’m starting to think it that it moved and no one told me and I’ve just been living in the Twilight Zone. It’s the only explanation for the insanity I’m seeing on the news lately.

So in Toronto, we have a pregnant 19 year old abuse victim who is in jail. Has she committed a crime? Nope. Does anyone think she’s committed a crime? Nope. But apparently putting her in jail is the only way that she’ll testify against her abusive partner who is wanted on 8 charges including assault with a weapon, forcible confinement and three counts of breaching probation. He sounds like a real winner.

She’s been in jail since April 3rd and will remain in jail until the court date, even though she’s 9 months pregnant. Their logic is that victims of “domestic violence” (Oh how I loathe that term) often refuse to testify and the police claim they require her testimony for a conviction, and well the only way they can guarantee she'll testify is if they keep her within arms' reach. Literally.

This situation really reminds me of Bill C-484. With Bill C-484, instead of focusing on preventing abuse against pregnant womyn and creating laws and policies that support these womyn before they are murdered, they push for a stupid Bill which will give their "unborn child" personhood rights and add extra sentences to someone who offs them. With this current situation, rather than creating laws/policies/programs that support survivors of violence who are wanting to testify but also you know… not wanting to be killed or furthered abused, we jail them to “keep them safe”.

And if you think this situation is a doozy, the latest news in the murders of 3 children in Merritt, BC show that the prime suspect was let off last week by a Justice of the Peace who didn’t deem him a threat. This is despite the fact that the man had a peace bond against him, been charged for a DWI on another occasion and a sexual assault on another occasion. Oh and was in court last week for threatening the school principal and administrator at his children’s school. Now I'm not a JP but I'm thinking that shit ain't right.

I’m telling you, this can’t be happening. Can we make the sexism, misogyny and blatant disrespect for womyn's lives any more obvious?

If the Canada I know and love is putting abuse victims in jail and letting creeps out on bail, then I’m out. I'm packing my bags and getting off this train.

I hear Antarctica is nice this time of year…